The Other Sound
by physixXx
Summary: Follows the 'Eyes on the Prize' storyarc. Chap1 happens sometime after Cedric & Harry hook up for the first time. Chap2 takes place sometime after the second task. Chap3 occurs within a week of the final task. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**1.**

Cedric Diggory loves watching Harry in the Great Hall. It's one of the few times he allows himself the luxury of flagrantly ogling the lad.

He usually only sees Harry's back; his ropy posture covered by his robes. But still, he can see the tousled hair; he can almost smell the unmistakable scent of boy, new and fresh; can feel the soft belly of youth under his fingertips. Cedric begins to imagine Harry's back, bare and heaving underneath him; arching into him with every thrust of his hips; faced buried as he bites into the pillow to muffle his gasps of pleasure.

He doesn't notice the rapacious smile that begins to stretch over his lips.

But that doesn't mean that it has been overlooked.

"Oooh, I see that," says a young bloke in Cedric's ear.

A brush of the shoulders jolts him out of his reverie, "What...?" His voice rises, far more defensively than needed.

Jason D'mour smiles and winks at him, knowingly. The sixth-year Hufflepuff wasn't the smartest lad of the bunch, but he was an excellent observer. Cedric silently chastises himself for being too obvious.

"She's a peach, isn't she?" Jason asks, nodding at someone straight ahead.

"Wh-who?"

Jason rolls his eyes, exasperated, "Oh, come off it, mate. I've seen the way you look at her."

He leans in closer to Cedric, whispering in his ear, "Cho."

Cedric's heart begins to slow its frantic beating, "What are you on about?"

"Yeah, nice try," he admonishes, returning to his plate and slicing a fruit in half.

Jason brings the fruit to his lips, offering the other to Cedric, ""Would you like a mango?"

Cedric shakes his head before returning to watch Harry. As his eyes scan in the direction of the Gryffindor table, he realizes that he is being watched himself.

Cho Chang sits almost directly in his line-of-sight of Harry. "Has she always sat there?" he wonders. They lock gaze; Cedric's mouth opens to mouth 'hello', but Cho simply ducks down, huddling with her Ravenclaw girlfriends and giggling profusely.

"She is beautiful," Cedric says aloud, as if putting together the pieces of a puzzle for the first time.

"Figure that one out all by yourself, didja?" Jason sneers. "She likes you."

"What?" Cedric snaps his attention back to Jason.

"I mean, I'm not stupid. I see the way she looks at you."

Cedric fixes his eyes to the young girl, inspecting her. He notices the same sheepishness that he's already used to obsessing over; the same red flushes around the cheeks; the same build, although slightly shorter; the same genuine innocence.

"And," Jason continues, as if trying to sell something of great value, "she's a seeker, too. So, that's something in common, yeah?"

But Cedric already sees the only commonality that he needs.

He smiles at her.

She smiles back.

Cedric wonders if he can have that normal life he had resolved long ago was beyond his grasp.

Cho Chang represents something for him, now.

Hope.


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

"I see the way you look at him!"

Cho's voice is raised and strained, almost hoarse from crying.

"And I see the way he looks at you!"

Despite being by the lake in a time when most are readying for bed, Cedric can't help but look around, nervously, hoping no one is around to hear them.

"You used to look that way at me!" Cho points out, between gasps of tears.

Cedric steps to close the distance between them. Cho lets him for a moment, taking small comfort that he is here with her; at least, for right now. Her resolve quickly returns. She takes a step back, holding up her hand in an effort to keep Cedric at bay and show him that he is unwanted.

It works.

"Cho," Cedric says, "I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

He doesn't know if there's any honesty in those words. He knew she could never be for him what he was for her.

Cho almost believes him; he can see it in her eyes. They beg for him to take it all back, beg for someone to wake her to reveal that it was all a nasty dream, beg to be loved as selflessly as she had love in return.

"How long?"

Cedric is bemused, not by the question, rather by the accusatory tone of her voice: icy and disconnected, It gives Draco Malfoy a run for his money.

"Wh... what?" is all he can muster.

"How long have you been fucking him?" she asks, slowly with a sneer.

"Cho don't be so crass."

He turns to face the Great Lake, reflecting the moonlight in iridescent waves; shifting as the water rises and falls as if dancing to some great song that Cedric is not allowed to hear.

Cho grabs his arm, forcing him to look at her. Cedric is surprised at her vice-like grip.

"Answer me," she demands, her voice no longer trembling.

But Cedric can't answer.

"What does he have?" she asks, "What does he have that I don't? What can he give you," she continues, clutching at her chest, "that I can't?" 

Cedric bows his head.

"It's not about what you are," he says in a calm whisper, "It's about what you're not."

He snaps up, looking, for the first time, directly in her eyes.

Cho is startled by the truth they reveal; by its brutal honesty and its final resolution.

"You're not him."

The moment seems to last forever.

As Cedric turns to walk back into Hogwarts, he begins to understand.

This must be what it sounds like when you break someone's heart.


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

Cedric waits, as he always has, at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Light falls through the oculus from the full moon, washing the colour from everything. The air is stale and damp. It is the perfect night to do what needs to be done – poetic, even.

Resting his arms on the ridge of the embrasure, Cedric sticks his head out of the window. He breathes in deeply, attempting to put himself at ease.

It doesn't work.

Cedric has never felt this ache before, deep in the pit of his stomach. It twists on itself, gripping and tugging at his heart and refusing to let go. If he would allow it, he would think it were dark magick. But he knows what it is: selfishness.

He hears the door creak open behind him, but he doesn't move. Harry slowly steps from under his invisibility cloak.

"Cedric?"

At the sound of his voice, Cedric turns to face him. His eyes dance over Harry; his face, his clothes, his emotions. Harry is dressed in his hand-me-down pyjamas. Cedric smiles at the big toe that peeks out from a hole in the dingy, worn socks. Reflexively, Harry's toes curl under, as if trying to hide the exposed digit.

Cedric loves this about Harry.

"You're probably one of the richest boys in school, Harry," he says between kind chuckles, "and yet you can't be arsed to buy new clothes."

Harry walks, albeit slowly, to Cedric.

"I... I just never think about it," he admits, "buying new clothes, that is."

Cedric can see the change in Harry: the newfound confidence in his stride; the straightened back; the chin held higher. Harry looks him in his eyes, now, and Cedric feels warm, knowing that he is in part responsible for the new aplomb.

In a perfect world, he would be by Harry's side as he grew to be the man he is destined to be.

Harry reaches out to touch Cedric, his eyes hopeful, "Cedric--?"

Cedric grabs Harry's hand to stop him. His grip is tight, at first; so tight, that Harry winces, more surprised than hurt. The hold loosens and Cedric brings the hand to his lips, kissing the fingers softly. Cedric opens Harry's palm before bringing it to his cheek, closing his eyes and enjoy the feel and smell of it.

Harry steps closer.

Cedric's eyes jerk open, realizing that he is losing himself, again. Dropping Harry's hand, his expression turns lithic.

Harry's face softens and his resolve crumbles as he desperately tries to gauge Cedric's emotions.

Cedric's eyes flicker in a moment of weakness.

It soon fades.

"I see the way she looks at you..." Harry erupts, "in the corridors – between classes – in the Great Hall! And I see the way you look at her." Harry's tone is hurtful and indicting. "You're... with her again, aren't you?"

Cedric looks Harry in his eyes. Harry deserves that much, at least, Cedric realizes.

"I'm sorry, Harry."

"Why?"

"You wouldn't understand," Cedric says, turning to peer out of the window onto Hogwarts' grounds.

"Bullocks, Cedric!"

Cedric isn't surprised by the venom in Harry's voice, nor is he surprised by the anger and pain etched on his face when he turns to face him.

"Fun is fun, Harry," he says in his best imitation of Draco Malfoy, "but there comes a time in every man's life when it's time to move on and do what real men do."

"That... that's all this has been to you? 'Fun'...?"

"... yes ..."

The volume of Harry's voice rises with his temper, "I can't believe you! I can't believe you would do this – to me, of all people. I thought you loved me, Cedric!"

It was more a question, than a statement. Cedric steps closer to Harry, reaching for him, even if it's for the last time, "Harry, it's not about--"

"Don't fuckin' touch me!" Harry yells, jerking away. "I hate you, Cedric Diggory! I hate that I ever laid eyes on you! I hate that I ever kissed you! I hate that I ever _talked _to you! I _never _want to see you again!"

As the invisibility cloak swings to wrap about Harry, obscuring him from vision, Cedric hears one last condemnation escape Harry's lips in a hushed whisper,

"... I hope you die ..."

Harry runs out of the Tower and down the stairway, skipping every other step in a frantic attempt to get as far away from Cedric as he can in the shortest time. He can only hear the sound of the frenetic gait; the gasps for air that never quite fills his lungs; his dizzying, desperate need for solitude.

And, beyond those aural reverberations, Harry cannot hear the _other _sound...

... the sound of Cedric's heart breaking.


End file.
